SAG-AFTRA Comes Out Against AI "Actress" Tilly Norwood

The recent emergence of Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated "actress," has ignited a firestorm of controversy in Hollywood.

Social Media was ablaze with everything from hot takes to letters of defense written by AI itself.

Well, now the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has come in and condemned the AI "actress."

The union, which represents approximately 160,000 entertainment and media professionals, has voiced its staunch opposition to the use of synthetic performers, viewing them as a direct threat to the livelihoods of human actors.

In a powerful statement, SAG-AFTRA declared, "creativity is, and should remain, human-centered. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics."

The guild was quick to clarify that it does not consider Tilly Norwood an actor at all, but "a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation."

Here's a more comprehensive look at what they had to say:

“To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation,” SAG-AFTRA wrote. “It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion, and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience. It doesn’t solve any ‘problem’ — it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”

The union's statement emphasized the shortcomings of AI-generated performers, stating, "It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion, and, from what we've seen, audiences aren't interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience." SAG-AFTRA argues that such creations do not solve any problems but instead create new ones by "using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”

These are clear and concise words that lay out pretty much everyone's frustrations with AI and its soulless regurgitation of stuff it steals from other people.

On top of all of this, the use of AI was a major point of contention in the recent SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, with both unions fighting for protections against the use of AI to replace human creatives.

The debate surrounding Tilly Norwood is a clear indication that the conversation about AI's role in Hollywood is just beginning. As I pointed out already, we haven't seen this actress sign with an agency or book anything.

So for now, she's just a showcase for software and nothing more.

But one of these days, someone will sign one of these things and try to greenlight them. And we're going to have to see where we stand as union members and as human beings.

I'm not sure the general public will want this, so it will continue to just be a niche. It'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out, but I am glad the unions are getting out in front of it.

Let me know what you think in the comments.